Bash Script to scale PDFs from the command line.
Uses ghostscript to create a scaled version of the pdf input.
The “paper” size does not change, just the elements are resized.
The script uses basename
, cat
, grep
, bc
, head
and gs
(ghostscript).
You probably have everything installed already, except for ghostscript.
Optional dependencies are imagemagick
, pdfinfo
and mdls
(Mac).
sudo apt-get install ghostscript bc
sudo yum install ghostscript bc
brew install ghostscript
From version 1.4.x I decided to create an adaptive method of getting the pagesize. It will try different methods if the previous one fails. People can also force a specific mode of operation with the -m
parameter.
The order of operation is as follows:
/MediaBox
with cat + grepThe postscript/ghostscript method was removed until I can write a PS script that gets the page size.
$ pdfscale -h
pdfscale v1.4.7
Usage: pdfscale [-v] [-s <factor>] [-m <mode>] <inFile.pdf> [outfile.pdf]
pdfscale -h
pdfscale -V
Parameters:
-v Verbose mode, prints extra information
Use twice for even more information
-h Print this help to screen and exits
-V Prints version to screen and exits
-m <mode> Force a mode of page size detection.
Will disable the Adaptive Mode.
-s <factor> Changes the scaling factor, defaults to 0.95
MUST be a number bigger than zero.
Eg. -s 0.8 for 80% of the original size
Modes:
a, adaptive Default mode, tries all the methods below
c, cat+grep Forces the use of the cat + grep method
m, mdls Forces the use of MacOS Quartz mdls
p, pdfinfo Forces the use of Linux PdfInfo
i, identify Forces the use of ImageMagick's Identify
Notes:
- Adaptive Page size detection will try different modes until
it gets a page size. You can force a mode with -m 'mode'
- Options must be passed before the file names to be parsed
- The output filename is optional. If no file name is passed
the output file will have the same name/destination of the
input file, with .SCALED.pdf at the end (instead of just .pdf)
- Having the extension .pdf on the output file name is optional,
it will be added if not present
- Should handle file names with spaces without problems
- The scaling is centered and using a scale bigger than 1 may
result on cropping parts of the pdf.
Examples:
pdfscale myPdfFile.pdf
pdfscale myPdfFile.pdf myScaledPdf
pdfscale -v -v myPdfFile.pdf
pdfscale -s 0.85 myPdfFile.pdf myScaledPdf.pdf
pdfscale -m pdfinfo -s 0.80 -v myPdfFile.pdf
pdfscale -v -v -m i -s 0.7 myPdfFile.pdf
pdfscale -h
$ ./pdfScale.sh -v -m i ../00-test-xml2dacte.pdf
pdfScale.sh v1.4.5 - Verbose execution
Checking for ghostscript and bcmath
Checking for imagemagick's identify
Scale factor: 0.95
Input file: ../00-test-xml2dacte.pdf
Output file: ../00-test-xml2dacte.SCALED.pdf
Adaptive mode: Disabled
Method: ImageMagick's Identify
Width: 595 postscript-points
Height: 842 postscript-points
Translation X: 15.657425
Translation Y: 22.157230
$ ./pdfScale.sh -v -v ../input-nup.pdf
2017-02-22:03:09:59 | pdfScale.sh v1.4.5 - Verbose execution
2017-02-22:03:09:59 | Checking for ghostscript and bcmath
2017-02-22:03:09:59 | Scale factor: 0.95
2017-02-22:03:09:59 | Input file: ../input-nup.pdf
2017-02-22:03:09:59 | Output file: ../input-nup.SCALED.pdf
2017-02-22:03:09:59 | Adaptive mode: Enabled
2017-02-22:03:09:59 | Method: Cat + Grep
2017-02-22:03:09:59 | Failed
2017-02-22:03:09:59 | Method: Mac Quartz mdls
2017-02-22:03:09:59 | Width: 595 postscript-points
2017-02-22:03:09:59 | Height: 842 postscript-points
2017-02-22:03:09:59 | Translation X: 15.657425
2017-02-22:03:09:59 | Translation Y: 22.157230
The installer will name the executable as pdfscale
with no uppercase chars and without the .sh
extension.
If you have make
installed you can use it to install to /usr/local/bin/pdfscale
with:
sudo make install
To remove the installation use:
sudo make uninstall